Buyers' right to Build-Then-Sell system
07/07/2007 NST Letters-to-Editor By S.M. Mohamed, Consumers Association of Penang

We refer to the Viewpoint "Far from being rotten" (NST-Property, June 23, by Datuk Eddy Chen, the immediate past president of the Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association (Rehda).

His argument is that abandoned projects form only a small portion of the millions of housing units successfully built, and as such, there is no need to change to the Build-Then-Sell (BTS) system or its 10:90 variant.

We would like to point out that abandoned houses are no small matter for those struggling to pay off loans for units they will not see, much less live in, while at the same time, paying rent for tenancies.

We do agree that millions of houses have been delivered under the Sell-Then-Build system, but that does not mean all buyers are happy with the final product. Poor workmanship is a very common complaints.

We need the BTS system so that buyers will not have to put up with abandoned projects or poor workmanship any longer.

Developers should rightly bear the risks because profit-making comes with risks.

Only experienced developers with an excellent track record and good financial standing should remain the business.